ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ratio distribution

A ratio distribution is like sharing candy with a friend. You have one big bag of candy, and you want to split it equally with your friend. Let's say you have 10 pieces of candy, and your friend has 5 pieces. You could split the candy in half and give each of you 7.5 pieces, but that's hard to do. Instead, you can use a ratio to split the candy in a way that's easy and fair.

A ratio is like a recipe for how much candy each person should get. It tells you how many pieces of candy your friend should get for every piece you get. For example, if the ratio is 2:1, that means your friend gets two pieces of candy for every one piece you get.

To use a ratio to split the candy, you first need to add up the parts of the ratio. In this case, that's 2+1=3. Then, you divide the total number of candy pieces by the sum of the ratio parts. So, you divide 15 (10+5) by 3, which gives you 5 pieces of candy for each part of the ratio.

Now, you use the ratio to split the candy. Start with one piece of candy for yourself, and then give your friend two pieces using the 2:1 ratio. You repeat that pattern until all the candy is gone. So, you would end up with 4 pieces of candy, and your friend would end up with 8 pieces of candy.

The important thing to remember is that a ratio helps you split things up fairly and evenly, using a simple recipe that makes it easy to divide things up.